It's to do with a military government destabilizing the country.

Threatening to close bars within 300m of schools, etc.

Business owners tend to run.

Western tourists don't come.

Rubbish.More traffic,more apartments,= more money,they don,t have to be farangs.Farangs not coming has more to do with their own countries problems.

The demise of Charlie's Fish and Chips caused the downturn.

i notice that many of the old shophouses have been turned into boutiques,cafe bakeries, spas and guesthouse/hotels. Seems the whole of the city center and spreading outward is now mainly tourist oriented. Nice to see some of the small manufacturing and repair shops still in business, there is even a blacksmiths shop near me.

I was looking for somewhere to get my platemail refitted after putting on some weight here, where is he located?

I wish I had taken lots of photos of the area of Chiang Mai where we moved to 7 years ago. Back then our moo ban had 11 houses in it, with 3 of those still under construction. Now it has over 100. Back then there were only 3 other moo bans within 5 miles of ours. Now there's about a dozen. Back then the only thing around us was rice paddies. Now there Home Pro's, Home Expert, Home Mall, tile companies, 4 large paint companies, a small mall, Promanada Mall, and of course, the always present 7/11's. Back then, highway 121 had little traffic in our area. Now you can sit at the exit of the moo ban for 10 minutes or more during morning and evening rush hour to try and get out. Now we're trying to sell our house and move a little farther out into something smaller. (If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll send you details.)

Changes in Chiang Mai? Yeah, a lot of them, and there's no escaping it. But I guess that's "progress".

Thats a clever way to get your add on the forum